How Long Do I Have To Submit After a Literary Agent Request?

Beth asked a literary agent request question that I’d love to address. Here’s what she said:

My burning question: Is a week–or two too long to wait to get back to an agent requesting a partial? Based on a different agent’s feedback, I’d decided to do a huge revision of the beginning of my manuscript. Recently another agent (queried *before* my decision to revise) asked to see the beginning. Obviously I want it to be perfect before sending it, but I don’t want to lose the agent’s interest or have them think I queried them prematurely (which is actually the case, but it was an honest mistake).

For those of you winding your pocket watches and working on a typewriter, some great news about literary agent requests.

You’ve Received a Literary Agent Request… But You’re Not Ready!

Honey, every writer I’ve ever known has made this honest mistake. OF COURSE you queried prematurely. Why? Because, even though I’ve been saying not to f-o-r-e-v-e-r, you didn’t believe me. That’s fine. I don’t take it personally. I know it’s not fun advice, so I know most people ignore it (or think they’re the exception).

The only way to really learn this is to be in the situation and to have that light bulb go off in your head. Even with things you’ve been told a million, billion times, it never resonates until you’re staring at the manuscript you just queried around and seeing all the flaws and you have that sinking feeling in your gut.

I won’t scold you any more about it, though. 🙂

Do Not Rush Through Revision

But now I will give you some advice that I really hope you (translation: everybody reading this who will be querying at any point in their future, and not just querying me) take to heart. If you’ve already made this mistake — to be clear, the mistake is rushing out a manuscript that wasn’t as fully revised as it needs to be — once, don’t make it twice.

DO NOT rush to complete this next revision just so you can rush it out to agents again. How can you POSSIBLY do a “huge revision” in two weeks and have it fully percolate and marinate and settle?

This just happened to me, for example. I usually don’t talk about things where the writer will most likely be able to identify him or herself on the blog, but this is harmless. I asked for a full manuscript in, oh, October. I never ended up getting it. And I’m selective about the fulls I request, so I did remember that I’d asked for it, and every few months, I’d randomly think, “Hey, I wonder what happened with that one.”

Well, an email with a completely revised full showed up this week (April), with a note that the writer had done a serious revision and didn’t want to bug me before it was ready. You know what? Not only did I not forget this manuscript (a), but I now respect that writer, because they got a full request and were about to press the “send” button in their excitement, but they pulled back and really took their time on a revision (b).

Submit to Literary Agents Only When Your Manuscript Is Ready

I tell people at conferences the same exact things (are y’all listening out there from Dallas?!). If I ask to see something, or I am even remotely interested in what you’re doing, you will not lose my interest. They probably got some ideas at the conference. They will probably go home and do revisions. They should take their time and query me whenever, because I’d rather see something good than something unpolished that comes quickly.

Let’s just say I prefer slow, gourmet food to fast food, because it takes a lot of time and care and craft to cook really delicious fare. (Edited in 2017 to add that I married a chef, so I take this metaphor super seriously!)

So, Beth, take your time. Don’t rush AGAIN. I know I’ll end up begging and pleading this particular point for the rest of my career, so here’s yet another entry into the Don’t Rush Out Your Submission Hall of Fame.

Let’s jump into your revision together. Revision guidance is at the heart of every one of my book editing services.

40 Replies to “How Long Do I Have To Submit After a Literary Agent Request?”

So the challenge I forsee coming up is how to know what’s too soon. Ideally, I’d revise it to the best of my ability, show a group of beta readers, revise based on suggestions , show a new group of readers, revise, rinse, repeat until I no longer see significant agreement in what the beta readers are suggesting. The problem though, is that my supply of thoughtful beta readers is limited. After my critique group goes through the first draft, I have a few nonwriter friends who will make good readers for a second round, but after that, I have a feeling reading standards will drop. I could go the professional editor route, but that can get real expensive real quick. What are your suggestions on knowing when something is ready?

Personally, I’d have dropped you a note letting you know I was revising (and probably apologize for the preemptive query)… and bugger the cynic in me, but it’s also possible said querier hadn’t completed his/her manuscript when requested… but good on ya for seeing the sunshine through the clouds 🙂

Such great advice and definitely the kind us writers need to be banged over the head with repeatedly. I think we get so excited our emotions overrule our logic. And yes, I have to say (um, again?) it was great to see you in person at the conference, you’ll have to come out here again soon!

Oh man… I SO did this when I was first querying, and it’s the advice I give to all my just-starting-out writer friends.

They don’t listen… you’re right they NEVER do! I’ll be all, “For serious, yo. Just sit on the book a month then go back and read through it.”

And they’ll be all, “Oh. I just queried a few… you know fifteen or twenty.”

Heavy Sigh.

But the thing is, I can’t blame them. The idea of an agent reading your manuscript on their [ereader of choice] in a trendy coffee shop and falling in love is just too sweet.

Your new Texas friends feel the same, oh yes they do. Get your man to book a geek conference down here and then you won’t have to work the whole time… you can just come hang out. (I can see it now. We’re sitting at the bar, nerds everywhere and I yell out: SHE’S a LITERARY AGENT and SHE LOVES HIGH FANTASY NOVELS! Then they devour you.)

I think everyone takes a serious second look at their manuscript when a partial or full has been requested. I usually take a serious look at it after a rejection of a full or parial- back to critics groups, revising, editing, etc… I sometimes feel like ‘perfect’ is what I’m striving for but doesn’t really exist. And about that advice- it’s like telling kids that too much candy will make them sick. They never believe you. Until they’re up at midnight after an easter egg pigfest and puking all over your new carpet…..

An agented writer whose blog I read was talking about this several months ago, and it really struck a chord then. Wait, she said. Make it perfect. Then, if an agent rejects it, you know they’re rejecting your very best work. There’s nothing you could have done differently. No regrets.

Writing is a journey, and getting to the point where you know whether your MS should ferment before sending queries is somewhere you eventually get to. But it is difficult to realize that you’re not there until something hits you upside the head.

My first MS is like this. I started writing it 2? 3? years ago, and I thought it was done last year, and I was ready to query. But it wasn’t ready and I had a lot to learn, and it’s now shelved until I can come back and fix it, when the story/characters solidify in my head.

Thank you! I know there’s no way I can have a huge revision done in even a month. These things take time! And I deserve the scolding (which is basically a repetition of what’s been going through my head the past two days).
About how to know when it’s ready to send out initially (Livia’s comment): I truly thought I did everything. Everyone read it. Two different writer’s critique groups, friends who love the genre, and I worked it and reworked it. Then the agent’s feedback, and I was like, OH.
Mary, based on what your hopeful client did, should I let the agent know I’m revising the beginning, or just wait until I’m sure it’s polished and send it then?
Thank you again for your help, and for shouting this same thing again from the rooftops. I won’t be making the same mistake again. AND I’ll see you next week in Reno…without a query, since the book isn’t ready. 🙂

Thank you for this again Mary! For many years I’ve heard, “Don’t send it out until it’s finished,” but many DON’T emphasize that revising the entire thing a million-gazillion times is the key to finishing. Oh, how I’m learning and thanks to great teachers like Mary, I’m learning A LOT 🙂

Dearest Mary, Bongo is going to insert some wisdom into this conversation.

Since only 3 out of 10,000 proposed manuscripts ever get published and since most agents ask for a partial and then never ask for a full, why waste time making sure the whole book is polished before there’s any interest? I say break Mary’s rule and apologize later if there’s interest. People should not act as sheep! Fight the power!

Second, Bongo has had a rough weekend. Since he could not be in Texas, no doubt some other man bought Mary ribs. Bongo can only hope that Mary acted like a lady and did not allow this man to lick her fingers clean. All Mary’s winking and hinting was truly unnerving.

Bongo feels violated and would like some reassurance from Mary that she did not sully herself. A woman’s honor is very important in my country.

FYI: If Mary is ever in Meknes, Bongo would be happy to clean her fingers.

Sorry, I just realized that it sounds like I’m making excuses for myself in my comment above, and there really is no excuse. I deserve my scolding and I’ll wear my shame like a mantle of…shame.
Maybe we should all have to wait about three months between “finishing” our manuscripts and querying agents. A year would be better, but I’m probably too impatient for that!

Oooh. I’m afraid I’m guilty of that. Even as I was hitting the send button, I knew it was wrong, and yet I still rushed. It’s so hard to be patient when a decision is looming! Well, hindsight is 20/20. Ah, good ol’ hindsight.

Thank you so much for posting this. I recently entered a contest thinking there was no way I would win. I didn’t win but the agent running the contest requested that I send him a query.
Yep, my project is no where close to being complete.

I would rather send in my very best and know it was the work that wasn’t good enough than have a doubt.

Beth — yes, that’s exactly what I’m talking about! We’re so blind to our own writings’ weaknesses. I suspect that a significant proportion of writers who query too early honestly thought it was ready at the time. So how to get around this? I suppose this is why it’s a good idea to query in batches, so you can revise based on feedback you get as you go along…

I admit I’ve done this before. But I also learned from it after I got two full requests within a week. I had to scramble to finish said manuscript. Not fun. Not fun at all.

I believe writers like to query early because they’re so excited about their books and want to “test the waters”. The best advice (even after beta readers have ripped it apart again and again, and once more for good measure) is to let it sit for a couple of weeks and come back with fresh eyes. You’ve been reading the same lines and paragraphs for soooo long that you don’t know what’s going on anymore. (Didn’t I just change that scene? I thought this character said that. I *think* I applied those edits.) You get the idea.

Beth, I’m with those folks who say we’ve all done it. The thing is, how do you get past the writer’s blindness?

Every time I make a good change to my WIP, I think, this is it! This is the one! By the time a few weeks pass, I realize there’s still more to do. So I continue bashing away at it. With a machete, more often than not.

My big fear is that I’ll slog through all that revising and critique group exchanges and dust-gathering time…and still accidentally send it out too early. I guess maybe I’ll try to find a new (to me), knowledgeable reader to exchange MSs with before I send it out. But no matter what, you can never be sure.

Great post! Although as a fellow agent, I would say that if a writer didn’t contact me to let me know they were planning to revise, and then expected me to remember his or her manuscript six months after I requested it, I would have no clue what that manuscript was once it arrived. I’ve moved on to other projects by that point.

I understand the importance of waiting and polishing a manuscript until it shines. If I did rush querying, and then decided to revise while requests were still out, and I got a request for a partial/full, would it be appropriate to email the agent and tell them I’m going over the manuscript and will send it as soon as revisions are completed? Or should I just take my time revising and leave the agent wondering?

Colleen — It would be worth including the original query and the agent’s request in your email when you submit something so late after the request, just to jog our memory. And, of course, being forgotten and passed over is one risk you run when you wait this long.

Jen — Yes, go ahead and email. Keep us in the loop. All I care about is that the mss. is in the best possible shape it can be, I’m, personally, not as picky when it comes to when it arrives.

A-ha! I’m glad to know this, because I’ve had a few incidents where I’ve been asked for a full only to have my brain freeze up.

I also found that a good writer’s group comes in handy for revisions and feedback; a competent group can help you spot all the little problems and potential quibbles before you send your work off somewhere.

The food! That makes perfect sense. Thank you, thank you! The best rationale I’ve heard on querying now or later:

*I’d rather see something good than something unpolished that comes quickly. Let’s just say I prefer slow, gourmet food to fast food, because it takes a lot of time and care and craft to cook really delicious fare.*

If you'd like more in-depth and personalized advice that I can give on this blog, please visit my Mary Kole Editorial website, to learn how you can work with me directly on your query letter, manuscript, or other writing-related project. Editorial inquiries can be sent directly to marykoleeditorial@gmail.com

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